The World Heroin Market

Can Supply be Cut?

Letizia Paoli, Victoria Greenfield, and Peter Reuter

The first book to provide a detailed look at the hidden and murky underworld of opiate production and heroin trafficking across the globe

Presents new information on opiate producing and trafficking countries, including evidence that the US receives most of its heroin from Asia and that a significant portion of India's licit opiate production is diverted to the illegal market

The size of poppy crops is annual front-page news, and this is the first book to provide hard facts on what can be done to curb the supply of drugs

The World Heroin Market

Can Supply be Cut?

Letizia Paoli, Victoria Greenfield, and Peter Reuter

Description

During 2000-1 in Afghanistan, the Taliban achieved a longtime goal of national and international drug policy agencies: a large, sudden, and unanticipated reduction in world opium production. This cutback provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the dynamics of the world opiate market and ask whether further interventions could effectively reduce the flows of drugs. Based on an extended, multi-national study, the authors construct a new model for the trafficking of drugs and revenues and offer the first account of the world market in heroin and other illicit opiates during and after the 2001 ban. The authors' broader findings demonstrate how robust production, trafficking, and consumption combine to make successful long-term interventions on the supply-side rare exceedingly difficult, though specific policies can impact the organization and behavior of markets. For reductions in both production and consumption, where the cultivation of opium is entrenched in the normal life and legitimate economy of millions of people, international agencies and foreign governments must provide adequate and long-term support to foster both alternative development policies and law enforcement programs.

The World Heroin Market

Can Supply be Cut?

Letizia Paoli, Victoria Greenfield, and Peter Reuter

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 1: IntroductionPart I: The Development, Composition and Behavior of the World Opiate Market 2: The Past as Prologue: The Development of the World Opiate Market and Rise of the International Control Regime 3: 4: Did the Taliban's Ban Really Matter? 5: Keeping Track of Opiates FlowsPart II: Country Studies 6: Afghanistan and Burma: The Two Dominant Producers 7: India: Diversion from Licit Cultivation8. Colombia: The Emergence of a New Producer9. Tajikistan: The Rise of a Narco-StatePart III: Policy Analysis and Implications 10: The Theoretical and Practical Consequences of Variations in Effective Illegality 11: Synthesis of Findings and Lessons for Policy Making Appendices Notes

The World Heroin Market

Can Supply be Cut?

Letizia Paoli, Victoria Greenfield, and Peter Reuter

Author Information

Letizia Paoli, Professor of Criminology, K.U. Leuven Faculty of Law, Victoria Greenfield, Admiral Crowe Chair in Economics, U.S. Naval Academy, and Peter Reuter, Professor in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Criminology, University of Maryland